Murder or Adventuring?

[Dog Moon]

So in my campaign there are two towns that have a rivalry going for many generations, as long as anyone can remember. Each town is controlled by a ruling family. The campaign begins with a fight where the PCs are instrumental in resolving the conflict. Then, due to circumstances in the campaign, there is a wedding to combine the two towns and attempt to banish the rivalry.

The wedding is attacked. The wife-to-be is killed in the attack and of course the father of the one town wants vengeance. He believes the other side is responsible.

The father requests the PCs to go to the house of the rival family and essentially pay them back. So my PCs weren't happy with the situation. They felt they were being used as assassins to murder people in their house. I wonder if the attackers had been monsters then they wouldn't have had any problems with this.

So my question is this: How is this any different than "Goblins attack, kill the wife-to-be and now the father pays the PCs money to wipe out the Goblin tribe" or "Thieves attack, kill the wife-to-be and now the father pays the PCs money to wipe out the thieves' guild"?

 

[delericho]

In the two other examples you suggest, the usual assumption is that one side are innocent victims while the other are clearly the aggressors. That's not the case in your first example - the PCs are basically in the middle of an evil-vs-evil fight, and being asked to choose which of two bad guys to support.

 

[Rottle]

It like one situation is a civil war and they are asked to chose sides, they other they are asked to help defend a town (aggressively) against an outside attacker.

In a civil war it's extremely hard for an outsider to figure out right from wrong, and chance are neither side is wholly one or the other. So getting involved is really messy.

The other is dingos ate my baby, help us prevent such evil from happening again. One side clearly appears good the other evil, easy for you to jump in.

Now that's not to say the easy picture is the true one, as dm you can add twists and such but in the beginning the PC's can jump in feeling they know the score in they other they jump in pretty sure they don't.

 

[Rottle]

Another item is more a question in your game are goblin's inheritely evil? Are they pretty much demon's in that their nature is predetermined?

Played in one game were my character was a half Orc. He did not accept that orcs or any race was evil inheritely. He tried to find a way for one town to live peacefully beside an Orc tribe through negation. It failed because the lead Orc religious figure whooped them into a frenzy and they attacked. But a few orcs resisted and the humans took them in and they now live in peace so he figured he was right. Then he tried it with yan- ti......then failed completely because in that world yan-ti were part demonic and evil to the core.

Most games I have played in goblin are just evil, and as such you can feel justified in killing them in retribution for attacking a town. In most games humans are not, so out right slaughter is hard to justify.

 

[Dog Moon]

Well, to clarify, the PCs have grown up in the one town who lost the bride-to-be. So their characters would have been a part of this rivalry basically since they were born. So they are definitely not outsiders in the conflict.

And even though there are evil family members in both families, neither family has done anything one might consider truly evil where anyone really knows about it [each side may have the eccentricities but nothing overtly evil as in slavery or torture or anything like that]. Assuming you exclude the leading of soldiers from one town to attack the other, which may or may not be considered an evil act. The town that led the assault in the beginning of the campaign is the same town that is being accused of killing the wife-to-be. So yeah, the side that lost their wife-to-be has a LOT to be angry for.

 

[Rottle]

Ok well "he believes" the other town did the deed, might not be enough for your PCs. Also you get back to the whole we're going in to kill off humans who might not be on the side of angels but they aren't all evil, even if the players agree the head of the rival family is. To get to him they clearly might have to kill some non-evil guards or servants. Maybe the PCs want to find evidence and then pursue a more legal method of ending this.

I think it comes down to adventurers see goblins as evil, but other humans are in general given the benefit of doubt.

 

[delericho]

Well, to clarify, the PCs have grown up in the one town who lost the bride-to-be. So their characters would have been a part of this rivalry basically since they were born. So they are definitely not outsiders in the conflict.

Bear in mind that while the characters may have been involved, the players have not. Since it's the players who are making the decisions here, that's potentially an issue.

 

[Desh-Rae-Halra]

I wonder why it is a problem that the PCs don't want to do this?
You didnt mention it, but I would be delighted if my players actually wanted to investigate to find out the truth.

If your plot hinges on this, then just tell your players "go ahead, give em the scorched earth policy, no consequences from your alignment will matter, etc."

 

[cmad1977]

Because there is no evidence of the other side being complicit in the attack?


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[Desh-Rae-Halra]

Because there is no evidence of the other side being complicit in the attack?


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That is what I am asking. Why is it a problem that the PC's dont want to go auto-kill the other family?

I played in a game similar in some ways, in that the Adventurers were supposed to seek out the "rebels" in the Kingdom. The DM expected that once we found them, we would just kill them. But instead, in character we simply asked them "what are you rebelling against? What are your grievances?"
There was a pause
then, breaking scene; the DM said to us (I swear this is true!) "I haven't really figured that part out yet".

So back in character, naturally, we just went upon or merry way and let them rebel.